The Danger of Disunity
by AB Norway
Summary: The RDA inc. may be dead but there are other and more sneaky vultures in the universe... waiting for a chink in the protection around Pandora - and finding it when a social rebellion is raging!
1. The Imperfect Creation

Author's Note

This story is a sequel to a former story of mine, "The Long War". I do hope it is enjoyable in its own right but events, persons, institutions, places and groups of people ties in with the preceeding one so I would suggest reading that one too.

The Imperfect Creation

Jake sat in the New Hometree and felt satisfied, for good reason he hoped. The political, administrative and military reforms to Na'vi traditions he had instituted looked like taking hold, and he kept on refining them too. He had arranged them after careful discussions with Mo'at and Norm, he had decorated them with lots of pomp and circumstance and added a sound portion of mystique to them – without forgetting arranging appropriate checks and balances. Also some institutions that simply had "come drifting" had shown to be useful and he had let them thrive with his blessings, and other clans and confederations had imitated these new institutions.

Jake had organized each craft into something like a "guild" and he kept the masters of each craft at hand all the time like a permanent clan government, including retired ay'olo'eyktan, ay'tsamshiu'eyktan etc., and their appointed srung ay'eyktan. When an olo'eyktan, i.e. clan leader, was elected by the tribal council to be nkxi'eyktan, i.e. tribal leader, he either met an impending srung nxi'eyktan or he might be a former one himself, in so case he could announce the job vacant at the confederacy council and wait for someone to apply for it.

Since a tribal leader would need a body of advisors too a tribe government of the same sort as at clan level soon formed. Soon the tribal grand master hunter became arbiter of border disputes since herds often passed borderlines between clan territories, big master singers arranged music festivals that celebrated a recently composed song winning in competition and may be referring it to the confederation festival for possible further honour for the composer. At the confederation level a similar structure soon developed, to Jake's satisfaction. When the Great Peace Council of all the federations awarded a hunter a hunter's red feather or a weaver a weaver's red hair band in the queue it was something like winning an Olympic medal at Earth.

Norm was named the grand master of scouts, since scouts were the greatest flyers they were natural messengers and in other words diplomats too. He became something like a Namana federation minister of foreign affairs. Soon all the ever changing diplomatic agreements became too involved for anyone to remember, so after discussing it with Mo'at and Jake to get their OK Norm took a momentous step: He introduced writing. Agreements on trade, borders, festival arrangements etc. were recorded on sheets from the looms, with ink made from a plant juice. The documents were kept in tubes sealed with wax to keep water, mold and vermin from destroying them.

Jake needed a head of the Great Peace Council too, to keep it an orderly body for debate and problem solving. To emphasize that this body was not a state just a meeting forum no eyktan was named at its head, just a tsahik. She needed to be just, neutral, incorruptible, evenhanded and not the least she had to have a very dignified bearing. Young Mamara'nan from the small Bonfin'ne clan at Northern Land fit the description perfectly. She made an impressing figure in her tsahik cape, the red hairband she was given and her taciturn yet dignified way of talking was quite in style.

Jake had instituted a military school where teenagers could apply for admittance when they had been inaugurated warriors of their clans, and he some time afterwards established a "royal academy" at federation level, for schooling teenagers appointed srung olo'eyktan, i.e. olo'eyktan soon-to-be, and likewise srung tsahik, where the curriculum was political, diplomatic and ceremonial affiars. The teenagers came to this academy after they had gone through some basic training, had been initiated and had found their mates, they entered the academy as a pair and graduated as such, if they later on were promoted to tribe leaders or even to confederation leaders they would be promoted always as a couple.

Soon some hunting, healing etc. masters established schools of hunting, healing etc. too, a development highly welcomed by Jake, with a similar career route as for the warriors: Two years of further schooling and they would be masters of their craft, they would then be able to compete for appointment to a tribe "government" somewhere in the confederacy, some few gained such a reputation that they then could be promoted to the federation "government".. Some took an "academic short cut" up through the ranks, they took hire as teachers after their graduation and became occasionally likely candidates for mastership together with the srung ay'eyktan.

The system Jake designed looked like a meritocracy, with merit alone deciding how high up you could go – but Jake knew better than riding on the high American principles of his youth. He had to accept the fact that the candidate mostly regarded as fit for a job requiring schooling was normally an offspring of the persons of matter in the clan – at least in the eyes of the people at the "helm" of the clans. He could only stress the responsibility of all ay'olo'eyktan to present their daughters or sons slated for succession with promising teenagers from the common people, not only those with connections. He was often ignored in that request…

Jake had managed to defend the world of Pandora against the onslaught from Earth, and to establish institutions making it harder to conquer in the future, but at the cost of undermining the equality of all Na'vi. The ay'eyktan had started to develop into an aristocracy, as opposed to the People, he had created a system of confederacies where each confederacy was basically an aristocratic republic composed of numerous petty kingdoms. Jake couldn't avoid remarking how ay'eyktan and their families delighted in sporting glorious necklaces, capes, hair adornments… That they started to demand a more leisurely lifestyle, the more up in rank they came… That they started going for formal visits to each other ever more often, demanding sumptuous servings only for their honoured guests ever more often… That insulted emotions of class demotion could be seen in the eyes of ever more commoners… And Jake came to discover with unease that a personal example of frugality and humility will only carry so far.

For many years the developing class division among the Na'vi mattered little. Jake took satisfaction with having created a system that should be robust if the tawtute should reappear. But he couldn't avoid remarking how the ay'eyktan of the other confederations began putting the blame of the social tension that was rising everywhere on their neighbours. The Great Peace Council meeting at the Tree of Souls had busy times with mediating grievances.


	2. The Social Rebellion

The Social Rebellion

Then the day came when finally old age caught up with Jake and he retired into a trusted adviser of the federation council at the age of 53. Some of his advisers with no fixed task in the council apart from being friend of him, like Kim Chae Tai, retired together with him, other retained their jobs for some time more, like Jeff Enright the lieutenant general of the confederacy and Derek Gill the admiral, or tsahik of the Namana Confederacy Neytiri. Jake now sat at the sideline and watched development, with slowly rising dismay. He lost his lifelong sweetheart ten years later, soon after he retired from the advisory body too and only rarely spoke up again – but with an awesome authority when he did. A briskly active and occasionally rough-and-tumble life had made him a broken and nearly crippled man apparently almost as old as time itself.

His daughter Sylwanin took over as tsahik to the clan and his son Tommy became nkxi'tsamshiu eyktan, they saw tension rise until the explosion came, when she had grown old herself, only a few years after the full retirement of Jake.

It began, as it often does, with a trivial event, about sixty four years after the Great Battle. Atan'noa was a young woman of the U'o'ne clan who as priestess apprentice had memorized ever so many hymns, benedictions, myths and she was constantly ranking top among the priest-trainees. But at the day of testing she confused two invocations and all of a sudden the top of the class rank went to a girl who was good all right but first and foremost she was daughter of olo'eytkan Ngallar and slated to pass on to the Royal Academy when she had found herself a mate. Atan'noa was mortified – and at the evening meal she met with Tulu'kum, an ambitious young man of commoners among the Eymastua clan who had been ejected from the warrior school he strenuously had gained a place at, after disagreeing very vociferously but entirely on logical and factual grounds with his karyu (teacher). The humiliated young man had then left his clan and joined with the U'o'ne kumpongu, gaining a good reputation among them.

These two grudgers had a talk, found each other and discovered a common dislike of the ay'eyktan people. They talked with other teenagers and discovered that they had touched a raw nerve. Atan'noa walked over to some weavers and healers and soon found out that there were many other initiated females with the same opinion – and Tulu'kum discovered the same among many warriors, hunters and scouts… He even met with Amwau who had been passed over for a vacant tsamshiu eyktan job even though his study had been very successful. The son of the singing master and weaponmaker master had better connections…

The three of them, the charismatic and pushy Tulu'kum and his equally strong-minded mate Atan'noa made a striking quartet with the equally belligerent but more deep-thinking and very uncharistmatic Amwau and his mate, the ordinary weaver Mumutiw, an inventive and unorthodox one as weavers went. Other dissatisfied na'vi joined their burgeoning conspiracy.

So at the evening meal some days later the bomb was detonated. Tulu'kum and Atan'noa stood up and spoke on behalf of the commoners of the clan. They demanded equal rights for school attendance for everyone, an evenhanded treatment while training, and equal opportunities for commoner's job applications to be taken as seriously as ay'eyktan applications if qualifications were equally good.

Ngallar rose startled from his food and gazed indignantly at the two of them. He pointed with a shivering finger and told them to behave with deference in the presence of a man who never knew his parents – they had both been killed during skirmishes during the Long War when he was an infant. "So you see, you son of a 'dime-a-dozen' history-teller, that in my family we KNOW how to tackle threats to the peace of the land!"

No sooner had he said this when Amwau rose up and declared that as the righteous tsamshiu leader of the U'o'ne clan he now took over power, asked Ngallar to immediately step down from his dignity and name Tulu'kum his successor, or face the consequences. Having said this most of the tsamshiu of the clan rose and brandished their knives.

Ngallar turned on his heels and ran to his ikran, and his other ay'eyktan followed him on ikran or pa'li. They fled to the neighbouring Rongloa clan and tried to enlist assistance – but the U'o'ne rebels had calculated with this eventuality and had sent their agents to the Rongloa clan beforehand. The result was that soon as the Rongloa olo'eytkan made a fleeting word about striking down the rebellion a scream of protest rose and then there were not one but two ay'eytkan families on the run. Over the next days the social upheaval spread to many other clans, of various tribes, and the clearly expressed opinion of the commoners of many other clans were clearly in sympathy with the rebels. A civil war was now threatening to tear the Namana Land Confederacy to pieces.

Prying eyes above and eavesdropping microphones planted down below watched and listened to the uproar with great interest. Here was an opening in the wall Jake Sully had built around Pandora. Message went from the moon of Aton to Earth through the wormhole, requesting that something was done to profiteer from this conflict.

The agitators from the rebels soon came to the Omatikaya hometree. The social conflict wasn't overly bitter among the Omatikayas, the reverence for Jakesully lingered. Sylwanin had little sympathy either way for the rebels or the reactionaries but her mate Niko'to came from the Tipani clan, his sympathies were not in doubt. Agitated talking broke out all around the firepit. But to the great astonishment of the commoners young Seze and her mate Zazuru rose up in support of the agents from the rebels when Niko'to cursed them: "Dear mother and father, now listen. We have discussed this, my Zazuru and I. We have concluded that the rebels are fighting for a noble cause. If we allow the struggle between them and the ay'eyktan to carry on for a long time, we risk that the Sky People come down on us and try their vile tricks. This is at least for sure, the rebels are not going to give in."

The timber of Niko'to's voice mellowed a little when he talked with his daughter: "Dear daughter, neither will the ay'eyktan of the various clans, tribes and confederacies!"

Zazuru took the word: "In so case it is better to be on the side of justice and the common people. I can't imagine anything else than that Eywa most certainly wants a society in balance among her children, we all know that She first and foremost and always strives for balance. With all my reverential respect for my olo'eytkan and the father of my mate, I ask You to accept this fact. Or if You can't, then please step down as olo'eytkan. You will not be driven out of the clan but be in the staff of hallowed advisers."

A little flash of uncertainty became visible in Niko'to's eyes. "Am I simply too old now? Would there be something the dear father of my mate, Jakesully, told me that I have forgotten? Or misunderstood? What do the People think about me?"

Zazuru concluded: "What the mighty Sixth Toruk Makto taught us was the value of unity in the face of a mighty foe, the superiority of good training and the power and stability coming from wise rule. He did NOT say that only those born from ay'eyktan parents posess knowledge, on the contrary he taught us and showed by personal example that you can learn to know. Remember, the Sixth Toruk Makto was absolutely not born any eyktan at Earth, even as a grown tawtute warrior he was still just a lowly siltsan tsamshiu, and still he had sufficient warrior knowledge to save us all."

Suddenly a hush fell over the clan, all the nervous chatter instantly died down. An old man at the age of 64, but a good deal more if years at Earth were counted in, rose up. With a rusty voice he declared: "I am in favour of my granddaughter and her mate. In all my years as eyktan at various levels I tried to block the emergence of a nobility but I failed. So now this situation must be corrected and the initiative coming from the U'o'ne clan is a most righteous one. I ask the mate of my daughter to accept that he has done a good job and let his daughter's mate save us all from a tragedy."

Niko'to gaze fell and he replied with a meek voice: "Zazuru, it is dawning to me that you are right, I should have known that my time has passed. We will need to reform our traditions if we are to avoid the bitterness that has torn the U'o'ne clan asunder. I understand that my time has come to give way to a younger generation. Will You accept my olo'eytkan necklace, to enable You to put our traditions back on the best path, Zazuru?" He took off his insignia necklace and held it out.

Zazuru said with a firm gaze and voice – but with a pounding heart: "I will and I honour Your great feeling of responsibility and the wisdom that make You do this. I accept this dignity with awe and great sense of duty, I will need your wise advice in the coming time and I may well hand the necklace back when the reforms we need are in place."

A din of appraisal broke out for the old chief's wisdom and the young chief's grace. Old Jake smiled with satisfaction, his intervention had avoided bloodshed. The agents from the rebels smiled too and congratulated themselves with winning over this powerful clan so simply. None of the rebel leaders had expected the Omatikaya clan to pass into the fold of the rebels without any loss of blood.

Within a month of the first spark of rebellion among the U'o'ne two thirds of the clans of the Namana Confederacy had replaced their leaders or they had fled. Furthermore, of the twenty two tribes the clans of the confederacy made up only two were not touched at all, and having a majority of clans and tribes at their side and the land of the Tree of Souls on top of it, they had captured the preponderance in the Confederacy. And agents had passed over to other confederacies, agitating for the cause.

The leaders of the rebels, among them Zazuru and Seze, came together in the revolutionary confederacy council meeting below the Tree of Souls to debate which reforms were necessary and decided that the problems lurked in school running and organization, succession to jobs, and governance of the higher organization levels. Reforms were now put in force with many a smart idea submitted from Jake himself, he was pulled in as a councillor to gain the pondus of the toruk makto for the reforms.

A reformed and clearly more republican-like confederacy council was established, in competition with the old, rather aristocratic one still fighting back up in the highlands. Tulu'kum took over as the kifi'ke eyktan and Atan'noa mated with him, becoming the tsahik of the Namana confederacy. Amwau was named military adviser to the Namana federation, he so to say took over the job that Jeff Enright once had had, and Mutuniw became weaver mistress of her tribe. Many other people of experience and brains made a very quick career too, replacing aristocrats who didn't accept the new era and either retired or fled.

First area of reform was education practices. The practice was established that among the twenty or so trainees in each class, only one of ay'eyktan family was allowed, other ay'eyktan offspring would need to seek a school at another tribe or wait for a year. The result was that future leaders would have to meet commoners more often and probably fall in love with some of the commoners. And eyktan parents were exhorted to encourage their children mating with any good teenager, not to go looking for offspring with views to a career. Furthermore evaluation of the ability of the trainees were taken away from their mentors and given to special sensors sent from the tribe, who made it a career to follow the training process from the sidelines. A trainer might recommend one from his class for final tests but the sensor was to have the last word.

Second area of reform was job succession. Only one job was for the future to be for inheritance, the clan olo'eyktan alternatively tsahik, all the other were strictly for appointment and rigidly to the best qualified candidate. The council agreed to discourage srung olo'eytkan of all professions and srung tsahik slated to succeed from mating with other of ay'eytkan parentage, and exhorting all olo'eytkan always to appoint ay'eyktan from school candidates of noted ability.

Third and last area of reform was recruitment for the superior jobs at higher levels. The representative at the superior tribal council or confederacy council was likewise an appointment by the olo'eytkan, with the approval of the clan discussion circle, alternatively a proposal by the clan council ratified by the olo'eyktan. He was a "government member" serving not in the clan discussion circle but in the tribal. Any olo'eytkan, tsahik or eyktan otherwise leaving their dignities to be promoted up in rank were to leave their dignities to their srung eytkan or srung tsahik. They could at any time be called back to their own clans and thereby demoted if they misbehaved. Tsahik to the Great Peace Council Mamara'nan wasn't asked to leave, but she was getting old and retired soon after anyhow. Kuniw'nge, the Amananga tsahik, was elected to succeed her, she was every bit as worthy as Mamara'nan had been and fifty years younger.

Reactionary ay'eyktan of the still aristocratic clans at the Namana Land – mainly in the northeast – did like aristocrats often do when they feel threatened: They sought assistance from abroad. Other confederacies were more than willing to come to their assistance, they had the same social problems too and they had seen agitators from the Namana Land. A new Great Peace Council was established at the Spirit Cliff at Southern Land, one of the main tasks for it was to defend against the revolutionaries at Namana Land.

So outright war broke out between the revolutionary clans and the reactionary clans and confederacies. The war took a bad turn for the reactionary clans at the mainland, they came under heavy pressure and with many warriors and hunters defecting to the rebels they were in trouble and knew it, however much assistance could come from overseas.


	3. Sky People Entering the Fray

Sky People Agents Entering the Fray

It was in this dangerous situation a small man with a plastic mask asked to be admitted to the audience of olo'eytkan Molitsengo of the Mountain clan. He understood at once that this man was a man of the Sky People. He didn't like him but he offered firearms, in return for that mineral the industrialists at Earth were longing so desperately for… In the tight situation the aristocrats were, Molitsengo couldn't really refuse the offer. After all the years gone by there were next to none firearms left among the Na'vi, so the revolutionaries met a severe defeat at the Battle at the Wind Toppled Hometree when they met the bullets from guns fired by the Mountain and Highlander clans. But the battle was still a pyrrhic victory for the aristocrats.

For when firearms started to appear among the forces of the aristocratic clans, the alarm sirene went off among the revolutionaries and among commoners with intelligence of the aristocratic clans too. The aristocrats had broken a central tenet of what Jake Sully had taught: Never trade with Sky People! The propaganda defeat was massive and nullified any gain at the Battle at the Wind Toppled Hometree. Molitsengo soon found himself a general without army. Warriors marched in formal marching order to the Mountaineer home caves to the tunes of cheers from commoner Mountaineers. The aristocratic resistance at Namana Land disintegrated and the ay'eyktan fled to North Land or surrendered, and no harm came to them if they accepted a life noticeably less sumptuous.

Tulu'kum capitalized further on the collapse by increasing the propaganda effort at the Gargoyle Fish Confederacy, at the clans of Atoll Islanders and Marakxali the memory of tawtute misdeeds was open for invoking, they soon transferred loyality. Most of the Gargoyle Fish clans were very peaceful but they still had sharp antennae for the winds of politics, and invited advisers from the Namana mainland. The Namana Confederacy wasn't quite alone any more.

But apart from the Atoll Islanders and the Marakxali clan few other Na'vi had seen the full onslaught of Sky People brutality, so well behaving and nice talking human diplomats offering firearms were warily accepted among the other confederacies, still mainly under aristocratic control even if agents from the Namana Land Confederacy had started planting ideas.

Precisely who was offering the aristocrats arms? It was not RDA, RDA was dead and gone, long since. It was not the UN Mining Commission either, the executives of this entity kept scrupulously to the agreement between Jake and UN at the end of the 2nd War. It was a third party, the Reston Minerals Inc.

Terry Reston was a chemical engineer who in the early years of the 22nd century had bought a potash and nitre work firm in Salt Lake City at a bankruptcy fire sale. The old owners had got themselves involved in shady business, turning their company into a "money laundry". Having worked in the chemical industry for some years Terry Reston knew who and how to chat with to get his salts sold, he could in time expand his business to borax, to saltpetre, to table salt from quarries…

When he involved himself in spodumene-salt working he came in contact with a new industry, the electronic. For spodumene salt can be electrolyzed to a metal very important to modern batteries, lithium. The spodumene work wetted his apetite, soon he was involved in extracting highly pure silicone from sea sand. A factory extracting tin in Malaysia became very useful, the tin ore was found to be rich in germanium, a material good for manufacturing computer chips. It was only natural that he then would take an interest in another material of interest to the electronic industry: unobtanium. A mining licence at the moon of Aton was purchased from the UN Mining Commission at the bankruptcy sale when RDA went under the judge's hammer. Old Terry Reston had in short founded a company offering many a material of interest to the electronic industry when he retired to pursue his other great interest in life, rearing pure breed collie dogs.

Old Terry still commanded lots of authority in the company but he rarely used it anymore. His three sons and his son-in-law managed the firm nowadays. Gary was the first among equals and the legal brain of the company, Melvin was the marketer and Benny was the finance manager of the family. Cassie was the junior of the Reston litter and had been the spoiled brat of the family, she ran off with a dashing Argentinian she met during her studies. Luckily Arturo Terrano Valdez showed to be a natural manager of technology and soon took on that job in the company.

Mel Reston was faced with a market for unobtanium that was simply insatiable. And then knowing that just nearby their mine at the moon of Aton there was a bottomless pile of it… The topic how to lay their hands on the deposits at Pandora became a daily dream among the four men. Old Terry heard the talking and struck down at it: "Listen up boys, in the licence contract we signed with the Commission we undertook to stay within our allotted territory lands. To the best of my knowledge no licences at Pandora has been awarded, in accordance with an agreement with the aboriginals down there. The deposits at Pandora are for ever out of reach, we better accept this for fact." He rose and bumped his cane to the floor to accentuate his words, and left.

Mel growled a little and shook his head. "So mindboggling much ore and so very close, but still out of reach! Simply too bad!" Benny asked: "Since we can't dig it ourselves, why not purchase it from the aboriginals?"

Gary brushed him off: "RDA tried that one but it ended in horror. The only merchandise the na'vi took an interest in, firearms, ignited a moon-wide war, only that was a financial disaster and the war ended with a political takeover that made their isolation even more ironclad. When they tried to put to action ABC-weapons word got out and then it was bankruptcy, jail and ruin. We should sure as hell avoid that!"

Arturo weighed in: "I have read the treaty closely and I found out that they declared Na'vi lands off-limits but they said nothing clearly about the seas!" Mel leaned back and said: "Before we get too heavily involved we should do some research in the present local conditions. So let's send down some listening probes and surveillance satellites."

So was done and they found out highly interesting things. Social unrest and in time full-blown civil wars. And they found a fat motherlode in the sea close to a small, barren and unpopulated island at open sea. Gary began to take an interested gaze in the affair. Agent Josh Tremayne at the office at the moon of Aton was ordered to manage the Pandora affair.

When he took his orders of initiating arms trade with the na'vi his office manager protested: "You do realize that the UN Mininig Commission has forbidden any mining activity at Pandora? You are aware of that our mining licence here at the Alpha Centauri solar system is likely to be revoked for this?"

Tremayne countered with turning the question of the manager around: "How many messages from Pandora have come up to the UN head office at Svarog? None at all! They most probably have no communication technology to get into contact with the commission any more. And now that they are busy fighting each other they shouldn't care too much about a small, far off island they have hardly even heard about."

The manager insisted at his protest: "But we will with our presence serve our enemies a golden opportunity to take on us, both our business competitors as well as enemies we inevitable will make at Pandora!" But Tremayne just pointed out his orders from Earth and carried on. So Tremayne was the man olo'eytkan Molitsengo met with.

Well, the affair was at first a bad fiasco but the market for firearms remained starved so a small trickle of firearms was started. Tremayne made sure to hide his traces well for the prying eyes of the Commission: The arms were purchased at Earth at the not quite "lily-white" market and delivered by incognito missions straight at Aton, not by way of the space port at Svarog under control by the Commission headquarter at the moon. The only occasion when a commissioner smelled rat it was hid below an urgent equipment delivery from Earth, but this commissioner was bought out by a fat study grant for his children. Lots of the consuming part of firearms, the ammunition, was produced locally at Aton and those raw materials were easily purchased at Svarog. Ore actually from Pandora was by some "creative book-keeping" entered in the production diaries as dug from the innards of Aton and processed as such. So the Commission didn't suspect any foul play and never discovered anything – the na'vi didn't have any equipment to get into contact with them either.

Agent Tremayne became the first mining director at the little island once the mining base was operational. He imposed some strict rules: No radio contact with the base at Aton outside regular traffic periods unless the station was in dire straits, lest some listening ears of the Commission should catch a transmission. For everyday use most contact was by space ferry coming up when the moons were adjacent only, once a month. The few radio contacts with Aton were coded and timed with monthly bursts of contact through the worm hole, to bury them below a lot of radio buzzing. The buildings were built with a dual purpose in mind, they had to be as invisible from space as possible and so most of them were constructed underground, what little was above ground was painted in camouflage colours.

They had to be as easily defendable from na'vi attacks as possible too – Tremayne knew that some na'vi power probably would be coming to attack them sooner or later. Defence towers, anti-air rocket batteries and surveillance cameras ringed the three-by-four kilometres large island. The cameras could be turned in any direction and they could switch to night vision. Heavy firewalls were constructed between rooms and all corridors could be flushed with poison gas if someone uninvited managed to penetrate them. All corridors were divided in two, outer and inner corridor, so that the penetrating enemy could be caught in a small room easily filled with gas. The harbour building was built mostly under water. The landing pad of the space ferry was at the top of the island, with a low, roofed-over hangar building without doors, a so large room couldn't easily be flushed with breathable air every time a space ferry was leaving the hangar to go to space, so the door into the interiors was both for ore loading and for walking through. And the building complex was constructed with quick evacuation in mind.

The next six years were a time of many small skirmishes, the few firearms the aristocrats had went a long way in turning skirmishes in their favour, the battle tidings were not good to the revolutionaries. It was a time of lots of frantic diplomacy, steady propaganda and patient espionage.

At the field exercises Amwau the top military adviser of the reformed Nama federation arranged, he marked that once the war cry had sounded everything became a wing-fluttering, hoof-thundering, shooting and screaming chaos. He came to remember some stories he had heard told at the war school from the military history at Earth, about the advantage of well organized, strictly disciplined and well-placed formations over wild hordes. Might some battle formation of this kind be possible at Pandora for more than just display for the sake of propaganda at victory days?

He enlisted some friends to experiment with formations. He put archers in the centre of the line and cavalry at the flanks, in units of tens and then whole clans, directed by drum and trumpet respectively. The cavalry was trained to shoot arrows and then retreat without risking hand-to-hand fighting unless the enemy was reeling. Furthermore he organized ikran-riders in wings of ten, to fly in line-ahead and shoot to the side, turning over to retreat by the sound of a sharp flute while still shooting – much like a cavalry in the air in other words. Amwau and his friends experimented a lot and found signals by drum, trumpet and flute easily recognizable for "alarm", "take up battle position", "engage enemy", "fighting retreat" and "full retreat", as well as more mundane signals like "strike camp", "morning call", "night call", "mealtime" and "line up".

Then the Namana federation admiral took an interest too, he let his fleets sail in tight formations but with canoes manned by strong rowers in flotillas on the wings of the front, to strike from the flanks to make the enemy fleet panic.

Amwau's mate Mumutiw was also active, she designed neck-bands for the warriors to wear, to set each of these élite warrior bands apart in battle. So as Amwau and his friends "graduated" from the war school they went to their new jobs and created similar new elite formations of their own in their new clans, they all met tsamshiu eyktans who could be convinced, at least by visiting units who could demonstrate the superiority of organized fighting formations. Amwau's and Wakxaw's tactical systems at land and sea soon spread and Mumutiw's idea about battle uniforms took hold too. They made sure to present the methods they had experimented for old Jakesully, he was highly impressed and gladly gave their fighting style his stamp of approval.

In the end the smoldering hostility ignited to all-out war. The occasion was when the Akxama clan of the Nongona federation caught a Namana Land agitator. Such had happened before and formerly a mere prisoner exchange was what had taken place but not this time, the agitator was executed. Social discontent was now raging in the aristocratic federations and the aristocrats wanted a salutary example. The Island confederation was probably the weakest link in the chain, one of those clans, the Western Islander clan, had an old history of cooperation with the Namana clans so the main thrust was put there.

The attack struck against the land of the Sunara clan, at the west coast a little north of the Pandora equator. The Battle at the Stone in the River lasted long and the blood loss was horrendous on both sides. The Namana side was inferior in numbers and armament but they fought in disciplined ranks in formation and under efficient control from a command centre. Amwau was sitting in an uninhabited hometree close by the battleground, with a map drawn in the floor and wooden counters showing units moving around on it to show troop movements, signals relayed by drums, trumpets and flutes directed his orders. Cavalry shocks were struck back with serious losses from archery salvoes and the retiring land forces were then relentlessly pursued by Namana cavalry. Up in the air the invading ikran-riders were met with wings of Namana ikran-riders who flew in at close range before loosening arrows and then turning while shooting all the time at their pursuers.

In the end Amwau put in his reserve air force and then the invaders collapsed. They fled to the coastline and discovered that the Namana navy had driven away their invasion fleet. The retreating force had been caught like fish on land and it completely disintegrated, the survivors were taken in by the Namana clans.

The invaders had been utterly defeated in the battle and the Western Island Confederation surrendered shortly after. Advisers from Namana Confederation arrived the day after the surrender and the social revolution was proclaimed there too, to the jubilation of island commoners. The Northern Confederation had lost heavily too and sent their emissaries to the Tree of Souls to negotiate peace on terms. There was no problem about that but the main condition was that the social revolution was allowed to take place, in controlled and civilized ways. Meaning that neither exilings nor executions were to take place, gradual reform imposition was to be put through and they had to join against the remaining aristocratic federations.

The aristocrats shuddered, the feeling was easily felt that their once rock solid position was visibly crumbling. They still had the advantage in numbers and armament but the Battle at the Stone in the River had clearly demonstrated that the advantage of better leadership belonged to the revolutionaries. And many of the federations now trembled with protests among their commoner people. A feeling of doom was spreading among the noble ay'eyktan.

Suddenly a piece of news came up at the aristocratic Great Peace Council. Sky people had been sighted at the small, barren, isolated Sea Serpent Island! If they could be driven off the island the aristocrats would score a mighty propaganda victory, and controlling the island would allow a convenient invasion route against Namana Land once again. A powerful invasion fleet was mustered, complete with double canoes for ikran roosting, like Jake put to sea when he subdued Southern Land. Something like a thousand ikran-riders were paddled out, add a lot of navy-men in boats also able with bow and spear – probably five thousand men went for Sea Serpent Island.

But this invasion was a complete fiasco too, the defence towers and the anti-air rocket batteries shot the attackers to pieces. Some of the attackers were so disheartened that they fled to Namana Land and applied for asylum at the clan closest to their landings, the Amananga. They were instantly pumped for information interesting to the revolutionary side. Amwau sat down with Tulu'kum and other members of the federation council to discuss.


	4. Deep Thinking

Deep Thinking

Tulu'kum opened the debate thus: "The aristocratic fiasco at Sea Serpent Island is a golden opportunity for us. If we somehow can manage what they couldn't we are in for a formidable propaganda victory over them. Let us first assess the situation we face."

Pirogue eyktan ("admiral") Wakxaw concurred: "The tawtute can't possibly be very numerous there, the island is so small that there simply isn't place for any large army."

Ikran expert Tau'ite put in some realism: "May be not but when a single person can control a whole defence system, like they were able to at Hell's Gate when it surrendered to the esteemed Sixth Toruk Makto, they can still give attackers grievous losses. That seems to be what took place when the aristocrats attacked."

Tulu'kum put up another point for pondering: "At the end of the 2nd War Jakesully, his mate Neytiri and a whole kumpongu went up to a moon up there and saw mining for grey rocks in full swing. They very probably are still at it. But never until now have they been bothering us – meaning that wise people up there are sticking to the peace deal to leave us in peace. In other words those tawtute at Sea Serpent Islands are criminals breaking a law. If we could in some way or other get into contact with them we might tell them that these guys are violating the treaty, they would then be brought up and away from here."

Scouting expert Putina (great-grandson of Norm Spellman) shook his head. "Jakesully would have had the machines to talk with them by then but those machines are long gone. We simply can't get into contact with them."

Amwau had been given many problems to solve, so he sat down and pondered many options.

Sneaking up on the island by masked boats, like Ninikit had managed against Sea Maggot Island even before he became srung pirogue eyktan? No. The island was too far offshore, the men hiding aboard could be fatally weakened before hitting shore – if no unexpected wind struck which it easily could in so many days at sea.

Poison their food, drink and air? Not food, part of their nutrition was probably brought down to them and most of it they grew at the station, like they had done at Augustine Research Station. But water and air, may be… Worth a try but no good absolutely on its own. Espionage would be necessary to get information, and how to get a spy there?

Seducing them with good food, drink and beautiful women? Sawtute men and na'vi women were biologically not made for falling in love with each other, neither was Pandora food and drink palatable to them.

Might it be possible to secure some assistance from Eywa – a tsunami or a storm may be? Possible but too risky to put a bet on – but serious prayers were said at the Tree of Souls…

Amwau requested ideas from people at the council and then one day srung pirogue eyktan ("vice admiral") Bemawatx came to him bringing precisely that.

Bemawatx had a quiet day out fishing when he saw something in the distance. He saw some fishermen struggling with a school of sea serpents. The sea creatures were large but not vicious though they could get jumpy if nervous. He saw how the fishers struggled with subduing them to catch them, and how the creatures jumped out of water to get away. Managing sea serpents to catch them was something every fisher needed to know, everyone in fishing clans knew that. Seeing the creatures made him think about the small island named for them. The idea struck him – since fishers knew how to calm them down, could they manage to agitate them to jump too? Could they then be herded in one specific direction – not too obviously? A little idea started to develop in his head.

Bemawatx went to have a talk with the fishing expert of the federation, Maksine – she had been named in fond memory of the kind, patient and very able healer of the ikran clan that had saved the life of her grandmother when she had trouble with giving birth. "We have a problem with invading Sea Serpent Island to drive away the sawtute residing there. I saw some fishers calming down a school of sea serpents to catch them. I came to think, would it be possible to agitate them to jump and struggle too? And then to herd them against one given point?"

Maksine was clear as day in her reply: "Able fishers shouldn't have much trouble about that."

Bemawatx now had the seed to a plan. He turned to his boss Wakxaw. After formalities he went straight to the point. "Do you remember the story from Earth about the gatherer who again and again screamed that nantangs were after him, so that when they one day really did nobody in the clan cared?"

Wakxaw was obviously sceptical. "Yes I do, and so what?"

"This is my idea: We corner a school of sea serpents and drive it against the island, we agitate them to jump to convince the sawtute on watch that they are just harmless fishers, not something worth wasting ammunition on – may be rather someone worth trading with? This they see repeatedly, in the end they will not care to check those fishers. Only last time they will not be approaching in peace."

Wakxaw brightened: "That is at least an idea with potential for further elaboration. I will bring it to Amwau."

Sensor techie Mark Keller had mostly comfortable days. He peered out from his semi-underground room, the windows overhead bringing in daylight were made from reinforced bullet-proof glass. The day when the na'vi had attacked had been frantic, for both him and for Lloyd Pugh at the weapons control screen, and for his commander, sergeant Winifred Albright and manager Tremayne too. But then it calmed down, na'vi activity trickled down to a canoe from time to time, offering unobtanium ore in return for firearms as they had been doing for some weeks before the attack. That was good, they were hardly fifty persons at the station and everyone had to wear many hats to run it properly.

One day some canoes were seen in the distance, Pugh was told to hold fire, they showed to be apparently harmless fishers struggling with catching some large eel-like sea creatures. When they finally made it they were quite close to the beach. Agent Lavinia Emerson, interpreter at the base, walked outside and wished them welcome at the base island to rest until they felt rested to paddle home. Their English was miserable but Lavinia's Na'vi was impeccable so the conversation went well. They were given some food and drink together with expressions of hospitality. Interest for trading for ore with them was expressed, they explained how schools of sea serpents had started to move closer to the island, sometimes leading them close. They were given a guided tour around the island. And they were given some small trinkets as a token of benevolence.

After their departure sergeant Albright sat down over a cup of coffee with Lavinia in the mess and looked her straight into her eyes. "You do realize the possibility that those fishers may have been something more than meet the eyes? It was simply so very coincidental that they managed to rein in that catch only once within earshot!"

She replied: "Calm down, I didn't tell them all the abilities of our defence systems outside, that the cameras can switch to night vision for instance, and we never let them put their feet indoors so they have no idea about the surprises they will meet if they try to. To get around indoors we all have to type in a code at the keyboard beside the doors to open them, they are flame safe, watertight, airtight and I am sure that they are magic tight too… Given a couple minutes warning we could hunker down, not even flushing sea water all over the island would harm us then. They have no idea about our ability to gas all rooms and they can't know about the machine-gun turrets in the corridors. They have never seen our underwater capabilities either, those submarines for collecting ore from underwater deposits can shoot torpedoes and rockets too, they got quite a few canoes and banshee-riders during the attack – and those attackers only saw rockets striking right up from the sea! I guess that the rumour about the disastrous attack has spread, and being aware of only a few of our defence capabilities should only keep troublemakers at even more of a distance. So calm down, we are completely safe. There simply is no way they can pull us down and out."

Manager Tremayne had other problems to consider than improving the seemingly ultra tight invasion security of the base even further. The revenue from the increased sale of unobtanium mineral at Earth had recently paid down the cost of the base, the ore from Pandora was approaching the production at the moon of Aton itself. The messages from the Reston headquarter were ecstatic, one of them ended thus: "As You know our firm is a company where a majority of the shares are held by one family. It is a pity that we don't have another sister you can marry to get into the company board!"

When the fishers came home, they were sent straight to the military leadership of the Namana federation to give report. They told lots about the local geography, about the defence systems they had been shown with pride and also those that able spying eyes had observed. They had discovered how very eager the sawtute were at trading for grey rocks. So in other words not one but two covers for attacks had been established – fishers struggling with fish schools and trading too. Brilliant success!

"Then we have the main recipe." Amwau said. "One gang goes ashore from one side as traders while another one goes ashore as fishers taking a rest. Once both parties are on shore they rush into the house and force the sawtute away by the points of arrows and spears. But there are numerous details to work out." He appointed recently named srung kumpongu eyktan ("major") Anatara of the Kilvan clan – granddaughter of Trudy Chacon – as next-in-command of the action and Zaza'w, pirogue eyktan of the Island federation, was asked to be her commander.

The small and wiry Anatara was sitting and discussing with smallish Amwau with his eerie knowing glance and big and bulky Zaza'w about the minutia of the action, in the sand between them a map sketch of the island had been drawn.

Anatara: "I have a problem with getting into this building there. The spies said that there is only one big building in sight but many obviously artificial humps in the terrain around. They must have dug caves to get around from one underground building to another, and the spies were never allowed indoors – certainly no coincidence. In so case I would fear entering those caves, we might get lost in the labyrinth. And if they close one door, how are we to force it open?"

Amwau: "You are right, that is a problem. Also mark that there is another door, at the top of the island inside that big house without a big door. The spy that saw it said that the area outside that big house looked like the big open place at the old Research Station where their big sky ikrans used to land – may be that is what it is, a place for sky ikrans to land? Another problem to keep in mind, a survivor from the attack of the aristocrats at the island said that those small boxes on poles swivelled when the flaming arrows went up. They pointed at one ikran in the air and an arrow went up. They turned to point at a canoe and another arrow went out. I am thinking that those boxes are the eyes they aim the flaming arrows with. So if we strike them down they are blind and can't fire at us. That is surely something to think about, Anatara and Zaza'w?"

Zaza'w: "I for my part am wondering about that low-lying waterside building. One of the walls is partially submerged. May be there is something interesting under water there? Let's send in another spying gang to swim in and take a look."

Amwau: "Then the spies above water can also take a look at that funny building with many tubes on the roof. We haven't identified what it is yet."

Once again a feisty school of sea serpents had to be brought under control, coincidentally very close to the shoreline and the defence towers, in the mayhem the surveillance techie in the control centre didn't see that one of the fishers jumping into the water didn't surface for some time. She swam underwater and saw that the waterside building had a floor with a huge hole in, and she saw big metal fishes swimming into the hole in the floor, hauling baskets with stones in. She surfaced to breathe and then dived in through the hole to take a closer look inside. She saw a big room, some metal fishes lying tied to a shoreline of stone and sky persons walking through a door into the building. Then she dived again, swam back to the fishing canoes just out there and entered them.

The spies on dry ground couldn't get too close to that funny house with tubes on the roof without rousing suspicion but one of them could see how air fluttered around them. Air in and out, the spy reasoned. He checked with throwing a stone just in front of one tube and he could see how it was blown away, in front of another and it was sucked in. Reasoning confirmed.

The reports of the spies were revelations to the three planning the attack. Amwau started thinking about entering underwater to attack but Anatara told him to stop thinking about it. "We would still get stuck in that maze of underground corridors and probably they have arranged some traps there too."

"Those tubes – air in and out – what do you think about them?" Amwau asked. "My associations point at air for breathing – but they can't breathe our air…" Anatara commented: "But they can if they run our air through some sort of cleaning machine, like that mask they always wear when they walk outdoors. In so case they breathe in through one tube and out through another one – and there are several of them."

It was time to have a meal, while they were eating Anatara suddenly stopped chewing and started glaring. People sitting close by became frightened but then she rose to her feet. "I know how it can be done!" she cried.

When the three of them were once again assembled she eagerly took the word. "We are approaching this problem from the totally wrong angle. I have a plan in three parts, most important it is to block them in. Since it is too dangerous for us to enter, why not instead force them out through a door we can control. I mean plugging the doors, leaving one open through which we can let them out, one by one."

Intrigued eyebrows went up. "Plugging the doors, how?"

Anatara: "We all know the anemonid plant and how it grows better if it can eat metal. It is the plant juice that makes metal things rot. So if we pick some anemonid plants, cut them to small pieces and weave the pieces into blankets, the juice will be activated when the blanket gets wet. Pushing such a prepared blanket against a metal door will make it stick very quickly and make the metal door jam."

"Remember the towers. They can shoot those who try to do this."

Anatara: "Which is why we must shoot those eye boxes first of all, it is the second part of the plan. We can use crossbows or we can ask some Marakxali warriors or from the Island federation, knowledgable with tawtute guns that is, to assist us. On given signal the eye boxes are destroyed, as many as we can, and then we run to the doors. We know three of them – in the metal fish house, the big door outdoors is the main entrance and there is a door in the sky ikran house. I propose we leave that one for the last since that is where we want them to go: back to the skies."

"But if we lock them up inside there they can still just sit down in there and wait. They have food, drink and supplies which we don't have. All right, we can bring some supplies in the canoes but still…"

Anatara: "So we move to the third part of the plan. Let's drop a burning bundle of dried sea fern down in-breathing tubes. That gives a very stinky fume. If there are some doors and tubes we don't know about life will still get very uncomfortable in there. They will come out feeling very, very sick but they will not be really poisoned, just feeling sick. And then we can put a sign in front of the window in their main building: 'Come out one by one through the metal ikran building door if You want to surrender!' There must be someone who can write this in English."

"It is starting to look like a viable plan. But do remember that sawtute have masks to allow them to breathe. What if those air cleaning machines can clean that bad smell too? And they of course have masks in there to protect them while they are waiting for us to leave."

Anatara: "Hmmm. But the spies talked about a big, flat sail on the roofs, sloping down into a groove in the middle, this sloping further down into a hole at the edge. I have guessed what it may be – what do you two think?"

Zaza'w: "A rainwater collecting sail, like we use to collect rainwater with when out on long sailings?"

Anatara: "Exactly. So if we push some poison down into the hole, we prompt them to come out to remove the poison from outside. Then we can take them."


	5. The Sting Operation

The Sting Operation

A couple of weeks later Mark at the surveillance screen discovered some canoes approaching in the afternoon. It paddled along in leisurely pace, making no attempt at hiding. Corporal Collins, head watchkeeper of the shirt, inquired: "What are they out for?" Mark replied: "Doesn't look like attackers."

They came to the beach and twenty-something na'vi went ashore. One of them took a sack and picked a stone from it. "Buy!" he called out. The base geologist came out, inspected the stone and nodded so Mark at the screen clearly saw it, declaring it as good unobtanium ore. That decided it, about a dozen people came out and decked a hospitable meal for them. One of the na'vi, judging from her white sash obviously someone of substance, proposed them to move a little inland. They sat down close by the main entrance, bringing the sacks along.

Meanwhile some fishers approached again, struggling with a catch again – very late in the day by the way… finally managing to haul in the catch close by the land, near the submarine shed. Some splashes were heard.

Suddenly a shrill flute signal was heard from the boat. The fishers quickly lifted guns and shot two cameras blind, the "traders" grabbed guns from their sacks and brought down two more. Suddenly a whole section of the perimeter had been put out of action. Alarm went off in the control centre. Everyone ran to their battle stations.

Outside a sack was emptied and folded out to a blanket, two na'vi ran towards the door and glued the moist blanket inside to the main door. Most of them were just then running uphill to the hangar. The two with the sack ran to the ventilation tubes, dropped some charcoal on the ground and made up fire, put some wads also in that sack into the fire and threw the burning wads down into the air intakes. Finally they stuck a lump of ground poison fern down into the water inlet. The staff that had come out to entertain the "traders" suddenly found themselves bundled up.

Meanwhile two swimmers had dived into the submarine harbour hall. They quickly rose from the water, ran to the entry door and applied a sea water wet blanket to it. They found a lone human man there, he was quickly subdued and bundled up. A few minutes later the warriors came to the hangar door, they pulled a heavy table in front of the door. The whole operation had hardly taken more than fifteen minutes and only one warrior had been struck by a rocket fired from a faraway tower before he could take cover.

Indoors in the base complex a smoke started drifting around, smelling something like a mix of vomit and rotten eggs. The maintenance techie screamed: "They have crashed the ventilation system! They are gassing us! Exopacks, all of you!" She ran towards the ventilation machinery and quite correctly, it was burning jolly with a noxious smoke drawn in and what was worse, the fire had destroyed the filters. Pandora air was seeping in along with the fumes. She gave report to director Tremayne – and all of a sudden a sign was put over the small window, reading in clumsy letters and barely understandable English: LET US IN VI STOP ATAK. OTTER JU VILL BE POISON. VE HAF MOR VAIS. JU VANT TO DAI? BE SMART LET US IN!

Sergeant Albrigth called out: "To arms! They are not many! Let's go out and take them the good, old way!" But coming to the main door they found out that it had frozen and couldn't be opened, neither could the door into the submarine hall. And the door into the hangar had been blocked by a heavy table on the outside. "OK, they have blocked us in. Well, we have a lot more supplies in here than they have out there. A pity with those they captured outside but when they withdraw from the island they will probably leave them with us. We can at least hope so. Let's go back to command centre."

Anatara waited and waited, the sun went down and the light from Polyphemous was pale, and still no response came from the besieged humans. Inside the hangar it was even darker, Anatara got herself a torch to illuminate. "They are trying to outwait us, thinking that we will be out of food and water before them. They are right about that so we must take the big mallet to get in now."

Her followers followed her, gazing incredulously at each other. Using a mallet? Where? How?

They went down to a blinded anti-air battery. She broke up the lid to its innards with her knife, she then opened the ammunition housing and picked out rockets. A warrior standing nearby could hear her mumble: "I just knew there was a door into this machine somewhere…" It made up more than a hundred rockets, she picked out a whole bundle and gave them to another warrior standing by.

She said: "We don't have any tube to shoot them from but they can still be useful. They explode when they hit something hard fast. So can I borrow the spear of someone? It may well be quite destroyed afterwards, but we will smash in this way."

She took two spears, tied them together and tied a rocket transversally to the spearpoint, like a letter T with a very long pillar. She then took two more spears and did likewise, again. And she made a third one too. Then she walked to the windows in the partly underground command centre building. She commanded: "At a distance now, this might be rather dangerous!" She then took the awkward contraption by the rod furtherst away from the rocket and swung it quickly against the glass. A big bang sounded and the spear point had been blasted off.

When the warriors then went in to inspect, they saw that a big hole had been blasted in the window. Not large enough to creep through though. Anatara did the operation once again. She did the same to the other end of the window, and once again against the middle. That did it, the window had been blasted out, the still standing shards could be picked out or cracked with a stone. Now it became possible to wiggle through the window.

Most of the less then forty people now at the base had gone to their bunks to wait out the na'vi besiegers, until they tired and left. Some had walked to the mess hall. Only Mark the surveillance techie was left in the control centre. But suddenly a big explosion was heard from the control centre. What they saw just afterwards, through the door in the twilight, was a total mess. Overturned chairs, papers on the floor, instruments torn to pieces, the dead body of Mark. Then another explosion came and they now saw what was going on: The other end of the window was blown in. Sergeant Albright screamed: "They are breaking into the command centre room, block the door!" And they soon heard loud voices outside the window.

Director Tremayne sat with an anxious face. "Now this is it, we have lost the control over all defence systems in the doors etc. And the enemy has cut our building complex area by four fifths. As soon as they find out they will see that our electrical supply is within their grasp, the generator room is on the other side of the control centre! We must at once request assistance from above while we still have power – "Radio Rick", make ready a coded message to our headquarter at Aton, request assistance immediately."

"Radio Rick" gave him a gaze. "You are aware of that You are breaking a clearly stated company policy now, boss? Radio silence from Pandora…"

He replied with a sour gaze: "I am perfectly well aware of this company policy. But we are now in immediate danger of loosing our very lives. I have no intention of ending my life at a small speck in the sea that has been forsaken by lord and serf and everyone in between. Send the message, dammit!"

Anatara saw that she had managed to squeeze the enemy even further but a strangle-hold had still not taken hold. She didn't realize that she had it within her grasp – the electrical supply of the base – and she lacked the knowledge to understand it either. She walked a little dejected up to the gang at the hangar door they had left open. Coming up there she was met with excited warriors. "Eyktan! Eyktan! We heard a big bang from inside and then an audible click from the door, Tsu'tey here laid his hand on the handle and it opened without problem! We are waiting for your go-ahead signal to storm through the corridors!"

She gave her delighted go-ahead and joined the fray. Zaza'w wasn't far behind either, he was meant to be the commander of the attack after all! They stormed through the corridors the fastest their feet could carry them, when they came to doors they were opened with a rush and they stormed further on. Since the surveillance system was down the station leadership had no idea about them coming storming.

"Radio Rick" was sitting and composing the coded message Tremayne had told him to send when he suddenly heard commotion in the corridor outside his office. He heard running feet and loud voices. He rose, walked to the office door – and froze. The corridor was a chaos of huge, blue bodies and struggling humans, loud voices were heard cursing and yelling, and calling out in that incomprehensible language. A pistol shot rang out and then another one, then he heard a pained scream, a yell and a groan.

A warrior wearing a white small sash, apparently a young female one, stopped when passing him, took a look at him, pointed a finger at him and asked: "Radio man?"

"Yes I am called 'Radio Rick'."

"You call to big eyktan up at moon to come down to take you up there, all of you, now!"

"She must be talking about the UN Mining Commission!" screamed a technician from behind some muscular warriors.

"I am sorry but I am not allowed to…"

"I allow you! I am boss here now! I command you to do that!" another voice was heard, a more rough and rusty one. "Radio Rick" got to see that it belonged to a huge, rough-hewn and heavy-set na'vi, really the picture of an old-timer sailor. He was wearing an ornate blue sash with embroideries and fringes. "I tell you, go to radio! Call big people at moon! Tell them to come down and take you up. Soon."

The sailor na'vi was really imposing. "Radio Rick" wasn't afraid of confined spaces, spiders and monsters under the bed but this guy was truly scary! He sat down, geared up the radio and called out in plain language: "Calling UN Office at Svarog, Mining Commission, come in please!"

"UN Radio at Svarog here, reading you loud and clear, go ahead. Identify yourself."

"Speaking is Richard Tompkins, radio watch at Reston Minerals Inc. mining site at Pandora. Our station has been captured by na'vi and they demand our immediate evacuation."

"Radio Rick" could so to say see the astonishment in the radio voice he heard gushing out of the radio set. "Reston mining at Pandora? That is in flagrant violation of unequivocal contract conditions given the Reston company! You do realize that there will be consequences after this?"

"I am fully well aware of that, I have no alternative but to call you. There is a knife at my throat!"

"All right, tell them that we will be coming to take you up tomorrow around noon. We have radiolocated your signal and will arrive at this position."

After the radio talk he was lead out of his office and locked into his bunk. He heard lots of tramping and recognized some voices in the corridor – the people they had captured outside in the afternoon were marched in to keep all the prisoners assembled. He heard painful groans, sobbing and cursing as well as jovial talking in Na'vi and commands barked in broken English.

When all of them had been locked in, Anatara and Zaza'w sat down in the now empty mess hall in tired satisfaction. Their warriors had been fed from the provisions at the base, not very delicious to Na'vi tongues but sometimes food is food. The water wasn't potable after what they had done to it but there was a cache of soda water – a little funny taste but it did slake the thirst of the warriors and their leaders. The action had ended well, a soldier said to be named Albright had drawn his pistol when they stormed into the mess hall, he shot at two warriors before he was manhandled to the ground. Only one was hurt and that warrior was struck in his upper arm, not overly dangerous in other words.

Compared to the mass assault of the aristocrats the sting operation of the revolutionaries had been an awesome success. There would be some victory reception back home…


	6. Aftermath to the Conflict

Aftermath

At noon the next day a space ferry landed at the landing pad at the hangar at the top of Sea Serpent Island, as the Mining Commission radio clerk had stated. Several tough-looking guys came out of the space vessel and their more executive-looking leader greeted with "admiral" Zaza'w and "major" Anatara. Shortly after the staff members were lead out of the base complex in handcuffs and into the cargo hold of the space ferry. The exec then told Zaza'w and Anatara that in the opinion of the UN Mining commissioner all this sorry story came about as a result of the isolation of Pandora. A diplomat would therefore arrive at the Na'vi capital in seven days' time to establish a permanent embassy at Pandora, to make sure that such events never again should take place. They were asked to convey this message to the leadership at the united assembly of the na'vi states, he said. "He must be talking about the Great Peace Council at the Tree of Souls." Zaza'w commented.

Finally the exec gave them a black box the size of a cell phone and asked one of them to stand at an open location at noontime in seven days and in the vicinity of this assembly ground of the Council, and switch on this locator device so that the diplomat would know where to land his or her space ferry to visit the leaders. "That job of showing the way I leave to you. I am a seaman and I know how to show ways on the open sea, pathfinding on land is more like a land military affair."

Early the next morning a space ferry landed at the Reston Minerals Inc. complex at the moon of Aton. In through the airlock came an exec with some tough guys at his heels, when mining director Molly O'Reardon asked what the occasion for the visit was he replied curtly that they had come to terminate the mining contract between the UN Mining Commission and Reston Minerals Inc. He produced a document giving details in full. About the clauses in the contract violated that was the reason for the decision – the opening of a mining site at Pandora.

All available mineral and ore currently on company hands would be sold to cover the expenses of the Commission, mining equipment and buildings etc. at Aton could probably be sold to the mining company taking over the contract, they would probably be willing to hire most of the staff in no way involved with the disaster at Pandora. Those who were involved in it, were to be transported back to Earth and there would be legal affairs coming for them.

The Reston Minerals Inc. company got away far lighter than RDA had. They had capitalized on a loophole in the contract. The number of Na'vi they had killed was less than a quarter of the _humans_ killed in the 2nd War, and the loss of human life only a single one. So no prison time was meted out but the penalty for transgressing that borderline that _was_ clearly stated in the contract – that of only mining in allotted areas and nowhere else – was heavy. The company didn't buckle in other words but it took decennia until they had earned back the outlay and the lost respect among businesspeople.

After the resounding success at Sea Serpent Island, where the aristocrats had lost something like a thousand warriors and the revolutionaries one killed and one wounded, the aristocratic resistance collapsed. It just reinforced the established impression after many battles, both military, social and propagandawise, that the brains of leadership was squarely to be found among of the revolutionaries. Among some federations like the Nongona a social rebellion of the same kind as at Namana Land erupted and quickly washed all over. At other federations, like the Southern, a "coup d'état" took place. And there were federations, like the Tomo'ingi between the Gargoyle Fish Land and Nongona Land, where a decision at the federation council was all it took, like at Northern Land.

All the federations hastened to rejoin the Great Peace Council again and advisers from the revolutionaries were asked to come without delay. A new way of life started for aristocrats, they now had to learn to sweat to earn their living. Among them was Ngallar, who had kicked off the spark that ignited the rebellion some seven years ago now, and Molitsengo who had accepted firearms from Reston Inc. to save his position.

The Great Peace Council debated it and the opinion that grew up agreed with the tawtute diplomat, that a permanent contact link would be beneficial to avoid any human meddling for the future. So Anatara was licenced to show the diplomat from Earth the way to the Tree of Souls.

So at the designated point of time she stood at the ruins that had once long ago been the Augustine Research Station and switched on the radio beacon. About an hour later a tell-tale roar was heard and a space ferry landed. A group of some twenty persons went off and a helicopter was pulled out of the cargo hold. Out of the mass of humans one person came out, looking very funny to Anatara, and certainly very, very different from other tawtute she had seen. She took place in the helicopter along with the diplomat and they took off and flew into the forest.

Many of the representatives assembled felt a shiver down their spines when they heard the sound of an approaching helicopter. But the person that disembarked when it landed and then was ushered into the presence of the Council by Anatara was different from all Sky people they had seen, very obviously so.

Noor Umm Hassan al-Bama'a was dressed like an orthodox Moslem woman, in a black gown from head to toe leaving only her face, hands and foot soles bare – she was a distant relative of the family that once had ruled Saudi Arabia. To the na'vi with hardly any garment at all she was a figure so outlandish that words couldn't suffice. She walked with a gait that was beyond dignified, it was regal, to the council circle and asked: "May I enter to deliver my message to the leader herself?" Everyone nodded and she entered the discussion ring to face tsahik to the Council Kuniw'nge. She took a letter out of her voluminous garment, gave it to Kuniw'nge and spoke up in flawless, elegant and very formal Na'vi:

"Ladies and gentlemen, representatives to the Great Peace Council and Your excellency Kuniw'nge the tsahik to the Council, my name is Noor Umm Hassan al-Bama'a, I am bringing greetings from the United Nations' General Assembly and his eminence Gerald Tolbert, the secretary general of UN. As a token of respect and desire for friendship I bring a gift for You, it is a longbow made of yew tree, I think it was used in war at approximately the time of the second or third Toruk Makto. (A gasp went over the Council, everyone understood that this had to be a very valuable gift.)

I am here to present my credentials as the first ambassador from United Nations at Earth to the Great Peace Council at Pandora. I and the staff I am the leader of will establish a permanent representation here at Pandora, at a location You offer us – we only ask that it isn't too far from this location so that we can keep in regular contact. If You have problems with reading my credentials then we can offer You a translator even more competent in Your language than I am. ("Would that be possible?" was a thought that ran through the heads of many a representative.) Furthermore I present You a list of staff at the embassy to be established, they will have a function time of six years before leaving and a new crew will then take over. I propose for You that You appoint a person to live permanently in the vicinity of the embassy, to be the liaison with the embassy staff.

Finally, I would like to invite all federation leaders and their mates, all of You the representatives at this Council and Your mates, and Your excellency Kuniw'nge the tsahik to the Council and Your mate, to a formal dinner at the embassy, a formal diplomatic meal Earth style, once it has been well established. We will submit a list of animals we intend to hunt and plant food to be gathered to serve at the dinner, to the clan closest to the embassy site to apply for the right to hunt and gather them and we request a skilled hunter of Yours to follow our hunters so that proper na'vi benedictions can be said over the game once it has been shot. The drinking served will be fine wines from Earth. Allow me to inform You that I will be present as host at the dinner but I will not partake in the meal, due to the facts that much of the food at Pandora is unhealthy or even poisonous to humans, furthermore according to my faith I am not allowed to consume alcohol and eat animals unless they are slaughtered in a way not tolerated by the na'vi, I fervently hope that my cell biology and faith will not hinder anyone of You from accepting our invitation. There is one person we intend to invite as special guest of honour if he is able to attend, mr. Jacob Anderson Sully."

Kuniw'nge smiled and replied: "He is alive but very old, but I am sure that he will be happy to attend if he is at all able to."

The location allotted the embassy was close to the ruins of the Augustine Research Station and construction work began soon after. Among the staff moving in was a construction engineer later to be the head of the janitor division of four technicians, seven soldiers-cum-watchmen – one of them doubled as helicopter pilot, a secretary to the ambassador doubling as usher, a computer wizard, an archivist doubling as toastmaster, a gardener and four assistants to raise everyday food, a chef and four cooks to prepare food, the cooks also doubling as servitors, an anthropologist doubling as interpreter, and three radio technicians. The liaison the Council appointed was Nguzuw from the Atoll Islanders. The list of ingredients for the party to be arranged was presented to Zazuru the Omatikaya olo'eyktan and he saw no reason to refuse any of the requests, certainly not with a so courteous respect for local traditions. The recipes were adaptations of dishes from renowned chefs at Earth, Nguzuw got to test-taste them – with a promise to not reveal the dishes to the guests, they were meant to be surprises… Kuniw'nge was informed that it would be an occasion for speeches, she might like to keep one at this occasion – and may be a very few words from Jake?


	7. The Diplomatic Reception

The Diplomatic Reception

Then the evening came. A big awning had been set up to shelter the guests from the elements. They arrived by and by, many of them with more than a little trepidation – would the faithless tawtute take the opportunity to strike down all the higher leadership of the na'vi political life? They were all dressed in their most formal finery, with feathers, hairbands, sashes etc. Approaching the awning they were welcomed by two martially looking soldiers functioning as doormen and dressed in regular soldiers' full dress uniform – they were fully armed they informed but only to keep animals of prey and other uninvited guests away. The usher of the embassy announced them all one by one as they arrived in the hall. Among the last to arrive and the very last to be ushered in was a seventy-one years old hunch-backed man arriving by litter and then limping the last steps with walking cane in hand, he was shown a place at the short end of the table facing the ambassador – it was Jake himself. He was heard mumbling: "If only I had had my Neytiri along with me now!" While the guests were taking their places a piece of music was played, the Birdcatcher's aria from "The Magic Flute" by Mozart – fitting for wishing hunters welcome…

Then the food arrived. The appetizer was sea serpent aspic with a kelp garnish, a glass of white wine was served. Ambassador al-Bama'a explained what had happened at Earth to RDA old and newer, to various persons that had been involved with it and to the Reston Minerals Inc.

The main course was a yerik medallion with a forest ikran egg sauce (adapted from béarnaise-sauce at Earth) with some tubers instead of potatoes and various local vegetables. A glass of red wine was served. Ambassador al-Bama'a talked about trade that might be possible to arrange – strictly at the wish of the na'vi and for the Council to licence, about research projects that might come – likewise for the Council to allow, and about teachers from Earth in various subjects available for schools at Pandora on the decision of the Council.

At the end there was a dessert. This had been hardest to collect ingredients to: a maute-souffle, i.e. mashed and frozen meat of the banana fruit. A glass of coffee liqueur came on the table. Al-Bama'a congratulated the na'vi with their successful safeguarding of their world, most of all during the trying times that had passed the last seventy years.

Kuniw'nge saw that madam al-Bama'a winked at her and she understood that she time for the speech she had authored. Eminent members of the Council had aided her with making it.

"Utmost honoured ambassador Noor Umm Hassan al-Bama'a, now listen. The Great Peace Council of the world of the Na'vi is exceedingly happy to finally have come in contact with humans not interested in destroying this world of ours. We knew they existed, as You know we have had heroic assistance from humans when we defended it. So sealing a bond with humans in their right mind, exchanging information both parties take a free and unenforced interest in, is in our best interest. We hope that this bond will strengthen and be a final protection from new meddlesome people coming from Earth. Finally we hope that a mirror image of Your establishment one day will be available for us at Earth – when conditions at Earth allow it that is: When hunting grounds for our use can be designated for us, when we know if air, water, food etc. of Earth is good for us even if our is not for You, when similar arrangements as for You at Pandora can be made. The Great Peace Council wishes You, dear ambassador, welcome to our world!"

Finally a tall and broad-shouldered soldier in US Marine officer uniform entered the hall on the cue of the ambassador and took up position alongside her. She took a letter and walked with him by her side up the table to the end of it, with slow and measured steps. At the end of the table she faced the old man sitting there, opened the letter she was carrying and read out aloud:

"I now call upon corporal Jacob Anderson Sully, the sixth Toruk Makto, the retired head of the Namana confederation and retired olo'eyktan of the Omatikaya clan, to rise up. (He rose up with the necessary assistance of some of the kifi'ke eyktan sitting close by.)

Your life story has been presented to the Career Commission of the US Marine Corps. They were highly impressed by Your career and what You have accomplished, in Your capacity both as a military as well as a civilian leader, both the institutions and practices You have built up and those You have supported the development of. Your enlistment contract terminated after the Great Battle has been reinstated and Your name has been recorded in the Hall of Fame of renowned US Marines. On behalf of general Morris Harrison, the commander of the US Marine Corps, I am now announcing to You that You have been promoted to honorary colonel of the Corps. Please allow major Orville Torrance to help You with putting on Your uniform jacket. And given your heighth, though it is customary to stand at such an occasion I will still suggest you to sit down, we don't have any suitable ladder at the embassy."

Jake sat down. Major Torrance unpacked the jacket, and the cap that followed it, hung the jacket on the tall but withered shoulders of Jake and put the peaked cap on his head. Every na'vi present watched in numbed silence, all understood that Jake was shown a big honour and they could all see the immense pride in his eyes. They all rose up and hollered in his praise, even Kuniw'nge. Jake was happy that he was sitting – he wouldn't have been able to stand now – and tears ran down his cheek.

He knew that some words were expected from him now. "Dear all of you! Dear ambassador! I have given the better part of my life to the defence and protection of the moon of Pandora and all there is to it. I have many times heard expressed from those I have protected that I am regarded as a good defender. It is with joy I now learn that I am regarded as a success story even by those who have regarded me as an adversary. But I ask all of You to be remember that I could never have made it without good assistance, both from humans I learned to trust and from na'vi who I learned to know and in turn learned to trust me. An old man is now declaring: I think that the life's task Eywa meant for me has now been fulfilled to Her satisfaction, that I now am ready to go to her embrace."

Afterwards the feast dissolved in lots of chatting, diplomatic talks and bemused questions to ambassador al-Bama'a about her background. Jake was discreetly helped out and on to his litter, beginning his way home. The uniform jacket and cap was hung up in New Hometree as a permanent memorial to his life the day after.

Two weeks later the news came that Jake Sully had passed. Ambassador al-Bama'a was at her request present at the funeral services, she put down a wreath decorated with pale blue streamers – in UN colours that is – and said one of the many, many eulogies that day, hardly any other na'vi had ever been put to eternal rest with a funeral so lavish like him and very few eyes were dry at the occasion.

He was unseen present himself too, along with his lifelong love affair Neytiri, with his best friends Norman Spellman and Max Patel (or was it Maksine now?), his mentor Grace Augustine had some acerbic comments to his command of social sciences, with his comrades-in-arms Trudy Chacon and Tsu'tey who had a friendly banter for whose arms were the best after all – the one had the best destroying power while the other was much simpler to make for anyone, with his respected predecessor and father-in-law Eytukan and his no less respected mother-in-law Mo'at who had a benevolent little bicker with Grace for the right to call him her protegé. Neytiri came up to him and presented him for her big sister Sylwanin.

In time Eywa let him meet and get acquainted with other Toruk Makto before him: Nivi'niti the first one wanted to honour him with some dances she had composed, Tsu'ngere the second one was curious about how humans made plants produce food at regular times by agriculture, Mekari'kari the third one expressed his admiration for his political organization, shy Moya the fourth one was a boatbuilder by training and a marine would probably know something about watercrafts at Earth, right? And then olo'eyktan Eytukan introduced him to his great-grandfather Turak'io the fifth one who wanted to inquire about tawtute flying machines. And Eywa had a surprise in store for him: "My goodness, Tom – are YOU here?"

And then Jake took his place among all the great men and women who always had been advicing Eywa and always would be, about how to direct things at Pandora.


	8. Addendum  Another Diplomatic Station

Addendum: Another Embassy

We pass eleven years into the future.

The impending Earth ambassador to Pandora, mr. Elefterios Karakamakis, stood before the Great Peace council.

"Our arrangement with a peace accord between Earth and Pandora has worked well, to the satisfaction of UN at Earth and to the Great Peace Council at Pandora too, it is hoped.

Diplomatic etiquette at Earth however decrees that embassies are to be exchanged, and I know that it has always been the wish of the Council. We have the last five years done a research project how a na'vi can adapt to conditions at Earth, and we think that we can arrange livable conditions. So I wonder if the Council could give us a couple who can work at Earth for a period of six years before they are exchanged for a new couple of ambassadors or their period is extended. It is the opinion of UN that since this will be a political representation an olo'eyktan and a tsahik should be appointed, plus some warriors and advisers. They will be granted a hunting-ground in a forest environment and UN can provide them with office staff."

The Council debated it for a week or so. In the end they decided to go for this. Bakawkx and her mate Norm, great-grandson of Thomas Jak'itan, impending olo'eyktan and tsahik of the small Highlander clan were appointed and then went to the Earth embassy to train for their mission, they were the ay'eyktan with the best English language. A simulator tested how they adapted to Earth gravity – with satisfaction. Earth air was survivable, if they made sure to take a rest in a room with Pandora atmosphere from time to time. Earth food was found to be not very delicious but acceptable. A team of seven warriors, seven hunters and some craftspeople were appointed and tested too. Finally the team left for Earth with the space ship that came with the new ambassador to take over the job of mr. Karakamakis and brought him along with them.

Having arrived about six years later they walked out of the space ferry and beheld a lush rain forest. A very dark-skinned human diplomat welcomed them. "How do You do, mr. and miss Te Nanakatsi! My name is Pierre Meruwa, I have been appointed to be the UN connection of Yours, my first task will be to introduce You to your residence the next six years, or more if so is decided. After human kind managed to remotely control dangerous factory operations and move them out in space, and rein in boundless population growth, some native environments hare recuperated, among others this one. These forests are located in a big land called Africa.

In these forests You are not alone. There are an Earth People called "the pygmies" here who are very eager to be Your friends. They have been under very heavy pressure and now regard your territory as a kind of protection of their adjacent forests. I will introduce You to them, they will explain You the details about making a living here."

They walked off the landing pad and into the nearby forest – and met some obviously humans. They were most peculiar looking – dark like mr. Meruwa but very, very small, a lot smaller than most humans they had seen. Norm and Bakawkx had to kneel to greet them. Those pygmies made broad grins, pointed and laughed, they all thronged to have a greeting with them. And they talked something totally incomprehensible Meruwa translated as: "They are inviting You to a welcome-to-us meal!"

While the warriors now entered the building complex and their assistants set up shop in there, most important of all setting up a radio station to communicate through the worm hole with Pandora, Norm and Bakawx got to know their hosts. They didn't yet share any language in common but it wasn't hard to feel that the pygmies were proud to have allies who were hunters and gatherers like themselves and enjoyed diplomatic protection. Meruwa had a busy time translating for the warriors the rules of hunting and gathering they would be expected to obey.

Soon as the embassy complex was up and running, complete with human clerks and technicians etc., Norm and Bakawkx took an airplane to New York, to the UN building to present their credentials to the organization. The UN General Assembly was in session when a pair came walking in, dressed in a lot of feathers, hairbands and other finery but little garment otherwise, with mr. Meruwa just behind, and walked to Todor Vasilevitch, the impending secretary general. Facing him they held a little speech:

"Your excellency the secretary general to United Nations at Earth, we two are emissaries from the Great Peace Council at Pandora, I am ambassador Norm and this is my mate Bakawkx, we are olo'eyktan and tsahik of the Highlander clan, appointed by the Council for the first period of embassy establishment. We hope that You will forgive us not presenting any written document declaring this, the written document about this we have brought is simply too large to be simply handed formally over, also we are coming from a society where words are spoken not written but no less binding even so, though we do record written agreements. We present You as a gift from us a red sash declaring you to be an adviser to the tsahik of the Council, should You ever come to our meeting ground at the Tree of Souls. It grants You a right to address the Council, whether elected in or not.

We agreed with former ambassador al-Bama'a that the time of fighting between earthlings and na'vi ought to be over. The UN embassy at Pandora has worked to our full satisfaction so we will reciprocate with opening one here. We trust that the earthlings working at the embassy staff will take their job seriously."

Norm continued with listing up the personnel at the embassy, including those brought along from Pandora. He presented some promising cooperation projects, and after the main speech got down to gritty diplomatic talks.

Six years passed on. Trade and scientific negotiations, learning the language of the pygmies they lived close to, working out what they would need for the future for the proper running of the embassy. So lengthy reports were submitted through the worm hole.

At the back of the complex there was a building dear to the na'vi. That was the relaxation room where they could breathe homely air – and in the centre of it a box in the floor with a growing seedling of a tree of voices. Not that it would ever bring them in connection with their ancestors, isolated from all the flora of Pandora as it was, but it carried a powerful sentimental value.

Time came to lay down their mission, Timak the Amananga olo'eyktan and his tsahik Amantxa came to take over. When back at Pandora Norm and Bakawkx went to a pilgrimage to the Tree of Souls, made tsahaylu – lo and behold, they heard the voice of a man: "Congratulations with a job well done, my great-grandson!"


End file.
